Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-11-28
PLAYING THE MAN"
SERMON PREACHED BY REv. A. L. JORDAN
LAST EyKNlNG.
Be Discusses he Q1sstil0, Whieh IS kAEsr, b Be
SAVED, g . Be Last? 10 60 b Hsaysa OF
% Hsn?-SsrTinsS ai he Dis
siplssS CAarrh.

Rev. A. L. Jordan OF the First Baptist
church preached telling sermon to g large
congregation Jas. evening. in which he
fully demonstrated the Divine origin Of
the Bible and thoroughly put sll scOfers
to flight He took his text from Job. XVI,
3: 'NGird up now thy lOins like man, for
will demSnd Of thee, and answer thou
me-" He said:
For a long time God has seen Job wTest-
ling with problems too mighty for him,
and asking questions which did not con-
Germ him At length quite weary Of this
oue-sided business, God takes the ques-
tioning oar into his own hands, and says TO
Job: II have listened to you long enough.
Now grid up myself like q man and i
will demand of thee. and answer thou me-"
We have several examples Of this same
method Of dealing with eayiiers and critics
in the New Testament We read fire.
quenily that the lawyers, doctors,
Pharisees and Sadusess came TO our Lord
with questions. many Of them important
an6,silIy enough. But once in a while
Jesus turned the tables upon them and
said II also will ask you one question,
and answer me-"
From such examples We gather that we
are not bound even a. Christians to sit
still forever under volley Of questions as
If the adversary had q monopoly OF all
the rights in that domain We want to
give You an opportunity TO reciprccate,
and so ''gird up yourselves Ike men"
and take the witness stand q little while.
We will discuss . question second 70 no
other in importance TO rs all, viz: Which
Is easier, to be saved or to be lost?-To
20 TO Heaven or TO Hell? Possibly your
| mind is made up, but then You have a
proyerb That . wise man may change
his mind but q fool never" and / am
positive that some OF you will change your
minds before We are through.
TIE CONDITION OF BEING SAVED.
We will take up first such burdens as
Christ imposes IS conditions OF being saved:
First, upon the body; second, upon the in
tellect; third, upon the soul, and contrast
them with the burdens which the world,
flesh and satan imposes and leave the de-
eision with you. We shall have time for
but few examples of course, but they shall
be the most difficult and Calling which are
TO be found in the whole category OF Chris
/ tian duties.
First-The burdens which Christ i'm
poses upon the body.
Take this for example: Abstain from
deshly lusts which war against the soul"
Flsshly lusts here means of course the pas
sions, appetites and affections of the heshiy
nature.
Now, to obey is to accept Christ's yoke;
to refuse is to remain under the yoke Of the
flesh. And which is the easier? Is the
question. Take a representative case: A
man under the spell of an appetite for rum
or any other passion or appetite you please
Go with yonr open Bible and show him
that command, and urge him TO reform.
Will il be easy to reform? / say ns, q
thousand times 10. There IS but one thing
harder, aud that Is to continue. D0es
some one say, mo, no, it is easier to con-
tinue the habit than to reform?' will ad-
NIT that some animals and birds had rath-
er gnaw at decaying carcass in the open
field rather than 10 come to the table TO
fresh. sweet roast. Everything depends
upon the nature Of the animal, Of course.
But when you speak out like man, can
YOU say il is easier 10 DC slave than
freeman; loathsome vagaboOd than re-
spected citizen? In one word, to sink IN
self.disgust to grave unwept and IN
known, than 10 he borne on the benedie-
tons of devoted friends 20 the home Of the
good.
Second-Ths burden which Christ i'm
noses upon the intellect. To accept this
Won must believe there is aGOd, the Maker
and Ruler OF all things. Thousands re-
ieet this yoke on the plea that
THEY HAVE NEVER SEEN GOD,
and 30 canno. believe in anything they
cannot see. Excuse me, but / am not
Speaking to that class. For their logic
carried ont, simply means that as they
never saw their brains, therefore they
haven't got any. But to man with
brains, which is the easier to believe, that
sspseless matter could so arrange itself,
mart TO part, wheel 10 wheel, planet to
Iplspst, that each note chimes with every
other in perfect harmony, or to believe the
Bible story of creation? Which Is the
essier?
Again, if We accept Christ's yoke We
must believe in the divine origin Of the
Bible. i. e. that man chosen Of God and
inspired by the Holy Spirit wrote the book.
Now tens OF thousands reject this theory,
CLAIMING that the Bible is Of purely human
origin. If their view is correct, then the
authors of the book weEs monsters OF de-
ceptiou and impOstors, for they assert pysr
and over that they wrote as they were
moved by the Holy Spirit. Very well.
Please "gird up yourselves like men" and
tell us WHY these 'impostsrs" would write
a book, every page Of which condemns
themselves. What motive could they have
had2 And further, how men living IN
countries far apart, and at periods OF time
tar distant from each other, could write .
hook in which they mention the names OF
some four thousand persons and places dis
tributed through all the early ages and
over the surface OF the entire world, as
known 10 the ancients, including Egypt,
| Assyria. Babylon, Persia, Palestine. Pho
lnesia. Greece and Rome and not maks oIs
single mistake? We challenge the world
10 point out from the Bible oHe dead mans
name WHO - VI JIG OiN AeAA~ -t-A'
placed. Just one ont Of four thousand.
And vet again how could these dream
ers'' fortell with never-failing precision
future events. many hundred years before
they transpired? ! bsye score of such
examples before me, and OF some Of them
being fulfilled before our eyes to-day, take
but one or two. These so-ealled ''impost-
ers'' declared that the influence OF theiE
book should fill the world, and from the
day it was finished up to this hour, there
has been 9 steady progress toward that
end. Take our oTB country Tor example,
in the year Of 1900, the census Of the
United States gives Us one protested
Christian to every fifteen Of the inhabit-
ants OF the country. The census of 1880
gives us one professed Christian 10 every
i've of the inhabitants. and word comes to
Us from other lands Of progress even
more rapid.